Effects of marketing-manufacturing integration across stages of new product development on performance

Our understanding on the benefits of marketing-manufacturing integration (MMI) across various stages of new product development (NPD) process is limited. Based on the resource-based view of a firm, this study empirically examines the direct and interactive effects of MMI in four stages of NPD process on three dimensions of new product performance. Survey data from 214 completed NPD projects in Chinese manufacturing firms are employed to test the developed hypotheses using hierarchical regression. The results indicate that greater MMI in each stage is, respectively, associated with faster NPD speed. Stronger MMI in business/market opportunity analysis (BMA), technical development (TD) and product testing (PT) stage is, respectively, associated with higher NPD cost efficiency. Higher MMI in BMA and PT stage is, respectively, associated with better market performance. In addition, the interactions of MMI in BMA and TD stages and MMI in PT and product commercialization (PC) stages have positive effects on NPD speed and NPD cost efficiency, while the interaction of MMI in BMA and PC stages has negative effects on NPD speed and NPD cost efficiency. The interaction of MMI in BMA, TD and PC stages is positively related to market performance; surprisingly, the interactions of MMI in BMA, TD and PT stages and MMI in BMA, PT and PC stages are negatively related to market performance. These findings have important implications for research and practice in both the cross-functional integration and NPD areas.